Hanover, IL

Hanover lies along the Apple River in Jo Daviess County, a village whose older names and waterways tell its story. The settlement was first called Wapello, after a Sac and Fox chief, and was incorporated under that name on February 12, 1849. It later became Hanover, making it the second incorporated village or city in the county. The river supported Craig's Mill, early mail routes, and the farm-and-trade network that grew around the village.

The Hanover Historical Society maintains a collection at the former Wapello School, whose exhibits include Native American artifacts found in the area. Nearby Mississippi Palisades State Park adds the larger landscape: bluffs, woodland, and river country along the Mississippi, a few miles west of town. Hanover's older center remains tied to the Apple River, while its local institutions keep the Wapello name and the settlement's early layers in view. It is a place where a small village, a river crossing, and the hills above the Mississippi belong to one northwestern Illinois story.